"This was ambergris!"
Nalant took a deep breath to steady himself. Otherwise, he feared he might jump for joy and lose the dignity befitting a lord.
If one asked what was most precious in this fantastical world, the answer was naturally Elemental Sprites.
But if one asked what sold best among the nobles, it was undoubtedly perfume.
Whether in his previous life or in this world, nobles had an almost obsessive love of perfume.
Of course, in his previous life, the main reason was that Westerners had body odor, and perfume had become a necessity to cover it up.
But in this world, thanks to Battle Qi, people didn't suffer from that problem.
The real reason they needed perfume was to train in Battle Qi.
Training in Battle Qi required not only meditation but also intense exercise to condition the body.
Men might not think much of the sweat from such strenuous exercise, but noble ladies and wives cared deeply. After training and washing, they still sprayed on fragrant perfume, which helped them forget how disheveled they had been.
Besides, people in this era weren't very particular about hygiene. In the cities, wastewater flowed through the streets, and people dumped their waste directly into them. Perfume could freshen the air indoors.
Even in Nalant's castle, though there was no such stench, the servants sprayed a little perfume each day to make the rooms more comfortable and pleasant.
So even a lord as poor as Nalant used perfume. The old noble families with money to burn needed no explanation.
In this technologically backward world, perfume was extracted from flowers and plants using the most primitive methods. A pleasant fragrance often signaled the rise of a family.
No matter how profitable perfume might have been in the past, it had nothing to do with Nalant. But now things were different: he had obtained ambergris.
Ambergris was the true "king of fragrances." Whether added to perfume or burned as incense, it was a top-grade treasure.
"My lord, what is this?" Quick examined the damp, grayish-white "stone" in his hand. It smelled a little strange.
"This is ambergris!"
"Ambergris? Ah... could it be a dragon's saliva? And... it doesn't smell good at all?" Quick's eyes widened. Dragons were the stuff of legend, yet this had clearly come from inside a whale... And although its name contained the word "fragrance," it didn't smell fragrant at all.
"Heh." Nalant didn't explain. The ambergris was still damp, and even smelled rather strange, but once it was dried, its fragrance would fill the air.
"Quick, take these two pieces of ambergris back to the castle immediately! Then bring the remaining two carts back from the castle!"
"Also, go to Wheat Leaf Village and bring all the serfs to Misfortune Village. Make sure every one of them brings two pounds of wheat!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Quick committed all the instructions to memory and hurried back to the castle.
Nalant, meanwhile, led the rest of his men to Misfortune Village.
"Greetings, my lord!"
"Greetings, my lord!"
The villagers of Misfortune Village were gathered at the entrance, each of them beaming with joy.
Beside them stood several small hills of whale meat.
Everyone knew that after working so hard, they would surely be rewarded with a hearty meal from the lord's enormous haul of whale meat. They would finally get to find out what it felt like to eat their fill of meat.
"Kenbi Cowdung!"
"My lord, I'm here!"
"Have all the villagers line up and come collect whale meat. Each person gets... fifty pounds!" Nalant said calmly.
"Ah... fifty pounds?" Kenbi Cowdung was stunned. The serfs around him were just as shocked.
"What? Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, no problem! Thank you for your generosity, my lord!"
"Thank you for your generosity, my lord!"
Kenbi Cowdung shook his head like a rattle and thanked Nalant with tears of gratitude.
The other serfs did the same. The frail girls were in tears, too.
This was meat—fifty pounds of it!
In the past, other lords wouldn't dream of giving them meat. They were grateful as long as they weren't subjected to extortion and forced levies like they had been by Anthony a few days ago.
"Good. But remember, I'm advancing you this meat. You'll repay me by working for me in the future." Nalant nodded in satisfaction. Still, to keep the serfs from becoming lazy once they had enough food, he needed to put it another way.
"Yes, my lord!" They belonged to the lord anyway, so the serfs didn't care whether it was a loan or not.
They worked hard every day so they could eat their fill. As long as they had enough to eat, it made no difference whether they farmed the fields or worked for the lord.
Soon, more than a hundred villagers from Wheat Leaf Village lined up. One by one, they stepped forward and happily carried fifty pounds of whale meat home.
It was quite something. Though the serfs were frail, they carried the meat as if it were bundles of cash from his previous life, not feeling its weight at all.
"My lord! The villagers from Wheat Leaf Village are here!"
About an hour and a half later, Quick returned, with a large group of villagers from Wheat Leaf Village trailing behind him.
The villagers still had no idea what was happening. Clutching the two pounds of grain in their hands, they trudged forward timidly with their heads lowered.
"Greetings, my lord!" Pete Leatherboot was the first to arrive.
After meeting the lord last time, Pete had decided he must be a benevolent noble. So when Quick sent word this time, Pete had done his best to bring all the serfs, each carrying grain.
"Good. Get up."
"Thank you, my lord!" Pete and the villagers cautiously rose to their feet.
"Ah! Is that meat?" As they stood, the corners of their eyes caught sight of the several gleaming white hills of whale meat behind Nalant. They all froze in astonishment.
The sight shocked them no less than the "giant sea monster" had shocked Kenbi Cowdung and the others.
"Villagers of Wheat Leaf Village, listen up! The great Lord Nalant has shown you mercy. Today, you may use two pounds of grain for the chance to borrow fifty pounds of meat!"
A guard who had already received Nalant's instructions began calling out to the villagers of Wheat Leaf Village.
"Ah? Fifty pounds of meat?"
The villagers of Wheat Leaf Village erupted in an uproar. They had thought the lord wanted to confiscate their two pounds of wheat, but instead he was giving them meat—and fifty pounds apiece!
Like the villagers of Misfortune Village, they paid no attention to the word "borrow."
"Thank you for your generosity, my lord!"
The serfs had only just gotten up, but now they all dropped to their knees again.
After that, things proceeded just as before: every villager from Wheat Leaf Village received fifty pounds of whale meat.
"Ding! Side quest complete. Reward: the second Daughter of Misfortune will soon appear!"
Just then, the system's notification sounded in Nalant's ears.
"Huh? It's complete already?" Nalant was taken aback. He had thought the quest would take more time, since under normal circumstances, an adult needed a pound of food a day.
Nalant had only handed out fifty pounds of meat per person, nowhere near enough to keep everyone fed for three or four months.
But that was just his habitual way of thinking. How could the serfs of this world eat as well as people in his previous life? Even in ordinary times, they consumed only about half a pound of food a day, staying half hungry all the time.
And although he had only given them fifty pounds of food this time, it was meat, far more nutritious than hard black bread.
If the serfs took the whale meat home and dried it into jerky, it would last them more than three months at their usual rate of consumption.